The present invention relates to an airfoil for a bucket of a stage of a gas turbine and particularly relates to a first stage turbine bucket airfoil profile.
Many system requirements must be met for each stage of the hot gas path section of a gas turbine in order to meet design goals including overall improved efficiency and airfoil loading. Particularly, the buckets of the first stage of the turbine section must meet the thermal and mechanical operating requirements for that particular stage. A particular problem associated with air-cooled bucket airfoils is a systematic cracking at the root cooling hole of the trailing edge of the first stage bucket. The cracking problem degrades bucket life.